I Don't Wanna Live Forever
by GirlWhoWaited
Summary: The Doctor, now in his eleventh regeneration, has lived for thousands of years. However, after Clara Oswald finally walked out on him in order to spend forever with her fiance Danny Pink, the Doctor isn't so sure he can go on. Enter Trixie Lord, the quick and clever Apple Store employee. After a battle with the Cybermen, Trixie is stuck on the TARDIS, unable to return to 2017.
1. The Girl In The Apple Store

"Good morning!" The Doctor called cheerily into the TARDIS control room, his bedhead still sticking out from here to yonder. His snappy shoes clicked against the floor humming with possibilities. He twirled on his heels, pointing at the handsome devil who winked back from the mirror.

He straightened his bow tie, waiting for the reply that would never come.

"Oh, yes, that's right…" He rapped his knuckles against the doorway.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Four beats, always.

"Alrighty, then. Where are we going today, old girl?" He drummed his fingers against the wall once more. The still air in the time machine hung around his shoulders like a thick bear cloak.

The Doctor pushed back his hair as he meandered over to the monitor. A sticky note on the side proclaimed a secret message for him in Gallifreyan: _take Clara to Akana- diamond beaches!_

He ripped the sticky note down with a wry twist of his lips. There would be no Clara, and certainly no diamond beaches. There would be no more adventures for the dynamic duo, at least not for today. Another note on the side of the monitor bore Clara's straight and narrow teacher's hand: _Bananas, milk, bread, eggs, tea bags_

He left that note where it was.

The Doctor sighed, smoothing his hair down the rest of the way. "Oh, Clara… My Impossible Girl. Never thought you'd run off and leave this old man all alone."

Well, _technically_ , she hadn't run off. Rather, Clara Oswald, the Doctor's close friend and travelling companion, had stormed off. His head hung low as the scene replayed across his vast memory, igniting the killing loneliness inside of him yet again.

 _"Doctor, I don't know how much longer I can do this," Clara sighed, casting a glance over her shoulder as she closed the TARDIS door. The red skirt of her dress swished away just in time to not get snagged._

 _"Do what?" The Doctor adjusted another set of levers. "We're time travellers, Clara. We have all the time in the universe."_

 _She took a deep breath, dropping her eyes to her hands. She casually covered the ring on her left hand with the perfect white polish on her right. "This, Doctor. All this travelling and secrecy and… escaping from reality."_

 _"What do you mean? This is reality." The Doctor pulled another lever, setting the coordinates for the planet Akana. She would love the diamond beaches there, he was sure of it. When he was cleaning out the spam folder, he noticed an unusual influx from diamond brokers._

 _"No, you know what I mean." Clara looked up at him, finally. "Doctor, I love travelling with you, but this isn't… this isn't real life."_

 _"Oi! This is my real life!" The Doctor scowled. This was the only life he wanted!_

 _She rolled her eyes. "But, Doctor, this is not_ my _real life! You know, the teaching job and the new flat and the family and the fiance that I keep running away from!"_

 _"Fiance?" The Doctor crossed his arms. He was supposed to know everything. Best friends always knew everything._

 _Clara put her head in her hands. "Yes, my fiance. I didn't mean for the news to come out like this." She looked back up at him with a smile brighter than any star in the universe. "Doctor, Danny proposed to me last night."_

 _"And you said no, of course."_

 _"No, I said yes." She frowned. Why would he doubt her love for Danny Pink?_

 _"And I say no. No more finances on the TARDIS. I won't have you jumping off a building in New York only to end up a colonist."_

 _"Then I say no." Clara flashed him a look that he hadn't seen since Martha Jones left the TARDIS for the very first time. "Goodbye, Doctor." She grabbed her purse and marched towards the door._

 _She left her key to the TARDIS behind._

The Doctor leaned against the controls in exasperation, knocking the final lever askew.

 _VWORP! VWORP! VWORP!_

"No, old girl! Woah! Slow down!" He pulled and pushed at the controls in a frantic panic. "I didn't tell you to go anywhere!"

But he knew that his protesting was useless. The TARDIS didn't always take him where he wanted to go, but it always took him where he needed to be.

"YOU WILL BE UPGRADED!"

The unmistakable chant of the Cybermen rattled the Doctor to his very core.

He crept out of the TARDIS carefully, keeping one eye in front of himself and another behind at all times. He knocked into a security guard, dropping his sonic screwdriver beneath a tangle of MI6 agents and UNIT specialists. The Doctor grappled for his beloved screwdriver, chasing it as it rolled beneath shoes and between feet.

"Looking for this?" When the Doctor scrambled to his feet, he was face to face with an old friend.

"Martha!" The Doctor beamed, wrapping his arms around the woman who walked the earth to save the world.

"Dr. Jones," Martha corrected him, arms crossed. "Nice of you to finally show up, Doctor."

"Nice to see you, too, doctor," he winked. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Well, if you called me every once in a while, then you'd know," she scowled. What Martha _didn't_ know was just how often the Doctor came to check up on her. "This world is in danger. I'd save it myself, but I kind of have my entire world on the way."

The Doctor glanced down at Martha's swollen belly. "You've swallowed a planet!" he beamed, wrapping her in another tight embrace.

Martha smiled, finally. "Do what you do best. Go save the world."

The Doctor turned to face the chaos.

Innocent civilians ran screaming from the shopping center in as many directions as the Doctor's bedhead reached. A silver cylinder the size of a habitable asteroid had made a rather large pothole right through the shopping center sign. He straightened his bowtie and strutted inside.

 _Time to save the world._

 _(Again.)_

"Everyone, stay calm and get back!" He called out, forever the hero. "London police! The situation is under control." Relieved mothers and calmed elderly made their way towards the exits.

The Doctor ducked behind an especially tall fikas, carrying it with him as he scooted along the wall. Even with the sound turned all the way down, the screwdriver still made enough noise to attract even the least attentive cybermite. He slinked along the wall and into- what else?- the Apple store.

"Figures," the Doctor smirked to himself, dropping the fikas and ducking into the Cybermen's makeshift control center. He pushed open the doors to a dark room. Only the slight _tick tack_ of computer keys guided him to the back of the storefront. Cyberman technology strung together three dozen Macbooks and twice as many iPhones. This looked not unlike Clara's kitchen counter.

The Doctor scanned the tech setup with the screwdriver. He marveled at the sheer intricacy of the disorganization. What a beautiful mess!"Oi!" He exclaimed, stumbling over an extended woman's leg. Terror seized his heart as he took in the way she appeared to be remotely attached to the machines, running them with unhumanlike purpose. Her eyes were unblinking as if her mind was under the influence of another.

"Don't you dare lay a finger on that, you will mess up my coding!" she growled. She lept to her feet and darted to the next computer, typing as if her life depended on it, because it did, actually.

Taken aback, the Doctor tripped again. She caught his wrist just in time, only to let him go once more. Regaining his composure, he assured her, "Don't worry, dear. I'm the Doctor, and I'm here to help you!"

Long brunette waves hung in her face as she typed away furiously. "No thanks. I've got this under control."

"You've got this- what?" He scratched the back of his head with the screwdriver. "Are you with the police?"

"No."

"Security?"

"Nope."

"UNIT?"

"No sir."

"Shadow Proclamation?"

"Never heard of it."

The Doctor tilted his head. She was a quizzical one. He did a quick scan with the sonic screwdriver. She was human, but she was so very human that it felt forced.

"Are you a human?"

"Yep. That's me. Good old fashioned _Homo sapien_. Now be a dear and pull my hair back, would you?" She flicked an elastic at him, not a second to sacrifice.

With a sloppy shrug of his shoulders, the Doctor plaited her hair the way Amy had taught him to one night while the TARDIS was charging in Cardiff. As he pulled her hair back, he peered over her shoulder at the screen. "Bloody… how? That's bloody brilliant."

"University of Cambridge computer science program, top of my class," she replied, typing in another furious code on another smoking laptop. "Now go be stupid somewhere else." She caught her reflection in the screen of a dead computer. "Nice plaiting skills. Do you do hair for weddings?"

The Doctor scowled at the mention of such a pointless celebration.

"Oh, relax," she smirked, meeting his eyes in the glint of the next screen she moved to. "I'm asking for a friend. You can still get my number after I finish saving the world."

The Doctor simply stared at her in awe. How did one human realize she was saving the world while executing her plan so perfectly? How did one human so easily put the fate of her kind on her shoulders? How did one human continue to _flirt_ through imminent disaster? He did not leave.

He would not leave.

"Fine. You can be my assistant," she mumbled. "Take my jacket." She tossed a leather jacket at him, revealing one of those baggy blue tshirts required of all Apple Store employees.

The Doctor folded the jacket over his arm and scanned the rest of the computers with his sonic screwdriver. She had disabled nearly all of them.

"Don't you dare touch a single thing," she told him. "I am almost finished. Just stand there and look pretty."

An unsuspecting smile crept up his face. "You think I'm pretty?" He straightened his bowtie. "Well, you, my dear, are quite lovely yours-"

"It's called sarcasm, look it up," she quipped, moving on to the next Macbook. "Remember these numbers: 2711."

"Why those particular numbers?" He inquired, daring to take another step closer.

"In case everything blows up," she answered as if it was a casual lunchtime conversation.

"If I may ask," he was going to ask anyway- "Why are you doing this? Why are you not running away?"

She didn't hesitate, not for even a millisecond. "My mall, my store, my job."

"So it's to save your job in this store," the Doctor tried.

"I'm not the only person I care about who works here, if that's what you're asking."

"I wasn't asking."

"Then shut up."

He shut up.

The woman stood up, finished with the laptops. "Now you can help. Pull out the blue USB cords, carefully. Only the blue ones."

For the first time in his life, the Doctor did as he was told.

As they worked to save the world, an unspoken bond formed between the girl and her unlikely companion. They were, for better or worse, a team, because destiny had thrown them together, and destiny always knew what she was doing. The Doctor wondered if this anxious uncertainty was the way that his friends always felt when they travelled with him. He wondered if this woman would like to travel with him. He wondered if she already knew how to fly a TARDIS. He wouldn't be surprised if she could.

"Okay, do me a favor," she cut into his thoughts. "Go keep watch by the door while I finish up rerouting. Let me know as soon as the Tin Men get back."

"The Tin Men?" He smiled. Her new name for the Cybermen had a certain moxy to it. "That's cute. Actually, they're called Cybermen. I know because-"

"Go keep watch!" She snapped. "And stay quiet! I feel them coming!"

The woman worked diligently to finish up her self-proclaimed mission as Earth's mightiest hero, and he waited for the Tin Men. As he kept watch, sonic screwdriver at the ready, the Doctor began to make a list of all the places that he would take her on the TARDIS after they finished with the Cybermen. _Raxacoricofallapatorius, Asgard, Ponton, Kastria, Akana..._

The Apple Store groaned with the finality of failed power.

"No! Ugh! Get off me, metal mouth!"

He turned around just in time to watch a pair of Cybermen drag her off through the employee entrance.

The Doctor did everything that he could to keep his cool as he searched for an alternate entrance. Whoever this woman was, she was brilliant, and the last thing the Cybermen needed was a mind like hers.

Also, in the short time that he'd known her, the Doctor had taken a bit of a fancy to this woman.

Nevertheless, she was a human in peril, and it was his duty to get her out of it. The Doctor followed the faint electric trail of the Cybermen to a window looking into the bowels of the shopping center. He jumped as high as he possibly could, grasping onto the window ledge and hoisting himself up and through it.

The Doctor landed with a thud.

"And he stinks the landing!" He laughed, hopping to his feet and facing the Cybermen face to face. "Now let the lady go."

The foursome of Cybermen who held the woman unconsciously strapped to a chair stared at him in unison. Her insides were hooked to machinery.

"She will be upgraded," one informed him.

The Doctor pointed his screwdriver right at the Cyberman's face. No matter how many times he faced these monsters, he could never believe that they were once human. "Let her go, and we won't have any trouble. You know who I am."

"You are the Doctor. You are no match for us."

"The Doctor, that's right. And I am no match for you. I am so much more than a match for you. And my friend there is more than a match for you. You want to know why? It's because she has a heart. And you know what? I have two."

The Doctor tucked the sonic screwdriver into his pocket.

He took a deep breath. "Let her go. Please."

The woman stirred beneath the Cybermen's unerring stares. "Two… sev….seven…"

He caught her message loud and clear, even as she whispered. "Two. Seven. One. One."

The Cybermen before him sputtered and died.

The Doctor watched the scene before him in horror. The Cybermen crashed to the floor and twitched for a full minute before the spark finally left them.

"Decommissioned," the woman mumbled before passing out once again.

The Doctor worked through his disgust to untie his friend. Tossing her over his shoulder, he ran through the mall and to the TARDIS, hopping over piles of decommissioned Cybermen.

When Trixie finally came to, she was laying on her back in a hospital bed, a hot mug of tea beside her, the strange man holding her hand. She blinked twice, then asked, "Where the heck am I?"

"Oh, thank goodness!" The man with the bowtie pulled her into a tight embrace. "Oh, um, nurse! Nurse! Excuse me!"

A tall woman who looked not unlike a cat stepped into the room and checked her vitals. She smiled warmly. "Mr. Smith, everything checks out. Your wife is free to go."

"Your what?" She exclaimed.

"Shh, love, slight amnesia," the man interrupted her. To the nurse, he explained. "Poor dear. She gets like that when she's stressed." He looked at Trixie with puppy eyes. "It's me, love, don't you remember? The love of your life? Your husband of five years? The father of little Johnny and Emilia Smith?"

"Oh, um… yeah…" She nodded slowly. "Johnny and Emilia. And little Roxanne on the way."

The nurse gave her a look of gentle confusion. "Mrs. Smith, I'm sorry, but you're not pregnant. We checked before we administered your medications."

Medications?! What kind of drugs had this weird looking woman streamed through her body without her consent?

"Yes, well, we're trying," Trixie flashed the woman a fake smile. "Right, John?"

Face bright as a tomato, he added, "Yes, dear. Of course." He paused, an awkward silence. "Well, we must be on our way."

With that, he scooped Trixie up into his arms and ran away.

He ran through a hospital that looked like something out of _Star Trek._ He ran out the door and past a field of unnatural grass and straight into a blue box.

"Yes, dear, it's bigger on the inside," the man informed her, rushing to the control panel in the center of the octagonal room after setting her down in a swing below.

Trixie stumbled out of the swing. She paced about, tracing her fingers along the circles on the walls. "It's nice," she smiled, "Like one of those tiny houses." This place, this box, was like fairyland for a technology geek like herself. "I'm Trixie, by the way."

"And I'm the Doctor. Pleased to meet you!" He shook her hand, catching her as the blue box shook and took off. "And this is my TARDIS. That's Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. We can travel anywhere in space and time, anywhere that you'd like."

She smirked. "I said you could have my number after we saved the world, not take me home."

The Doctor gave her an awkward smile. "Well, then, anywhere in time and space. Where would you like to go?"

"I'd like to go back to London, please," she replied. "London 21st century, day after we saved the world. We did save the world, didn't we?"

The Doctor nodded. "Welcome to the day in the life of one of my travelling companions! You see, that what we do here aboard the TARDIS- we see the universe and we go where we're needed." His eyes glittered when he smiled. "And the universe needs you, Trixie. You're bloody brilliant."

"Oh, I know," she shrugged him off. "And I'd like to go home please." She ran her fingers across the TARDIS controls. "Maybe you can come over for tea and scones."

He just smiled at her as if she was the most unusual thing in the universe. "I tell you that I'm a time travelling alien, and all you want is a tea party?"

Trixie made a face. "Tea party, no. Tea and scones, yes. Just very casual, you know… Like a book club."

"A book club?" The Doctor chuckled. "Alrighty, then, let's go have a book club."

Suddenly, the TARDIS seized as if someone else had control. A health warning flashed across the monitor. Trixie stood in front of it, squinting to read the long lines of tiny print. "It says I'm not healthy enough to return to earth yet."

The Doctor read it from behind her. "That it does."

Trixie merely shrugged. "Alright then, Doctor, take me to a space beach."

She strutted down the unfamiliar beach as if she had belonged there for a long time,

The Doctor carefully studied every move she made- the hair tossed over her shoulder, the bare toes digging into diamond dust, the pale skin glinting in the starshine. She was a mess of today and tomorrow and everything that stretched between them. He wanted to step forward and take her hand in his own, but she walked as a woman who needed no one beside her.

What he saw beneath her confidence was a reflection of himself- loneliness.

Trixie had a long scar down the side of her stomach from where the Cybermen had cut her open and the nuns had sewn her back together. She showed it off as a red badge of courage, strutting down the beaches of Akana in a two piece suit that had been in the TARDIS wardrobe since the 1950s. "What's the matter, Doctor?" She called over her shoulder, her hair still pulled back in the plait.

"Oh, nothing…" he assured her, letting the goofy grin contort his face. "I'm glad you're feeling better, that's all."

"I'm always fine," she said. She bent down to pick up something from the shore. She stood up and pranced over to him, proudly showing the Doctor her new treasure. "This is the biggest diamond I've ever seen!"

He chuckled. "Yes, this planet is known for its diamonds. The sand here is made of diamond dust."

Her eyes grew into saucers at the notion of grandeur. "Can I keep it?" He nodded. "Goodbye student debt!" She held it out to him, fingers outstretched. "Can you keep it in your pocket so I don't lose it?" The Doctor accepted the diamond and tucked it into the pocket of his jacket. He had opted out of proper beach attire, instead remaining in his suit and bowtie.

"Let's lay out the towels and go sunbathing right here," Trixie decided. The Doctor obediently spread out a pair of towels he'd unearthed within the TARDIS and sat down. Trixie spread out her long legs luxuriously, not giving a crap about the rest of the universe. "Relax, Doctor," she laughed. "You said that you save the world twice a day. Take a day off."

He closed his eyes and lay back against the towel. With the thousands of thoughts and half a dozen parallel universes racing through his mind, it was hard to stay still, even for a moment. The Doctor was just about to get up when Trixie lay her head against his shoulder. "This is nice," she smiled.

The Doctor reached for her hand. "It is, isn't it?"

"Excuse me, m'am, but can I get a picture?"

Their sweet daydreams were interrupted by a cow-shaped man with a pig-shaped face. "For, uh, the newspaper."

"For, uh, I think not," Trixie quipped. "I'm not a resident."

"Sorry, miss, you're just such a lovely specimen." The farm animal humanoid held up a Polaroid-esque telescope. "Just one quick shot? I could make you famous."

"I'm fine, thanks," she replied.

"Miss, come on, I'm just a simple guy who wants a picture of a pretty female. Is that too much to ask?" He reached out a hand towards her.

This was where the Doctor decided to intervene. "Excuse me, but she said no. And when a woman says no, she means no." He sat up, inadvertantly pulling Trixie's arm up with him.

She sat up to be in a more comfortable position to address the pig man. "Now go on, scram. Get lost."

"Ma'am, just one-"

The Doctor snatched away the camera. He zapped it with his sonic screwdriver. "This isn't a camera. In fact, it's the exact opposite of a camera. This is an Aremac. Where did you get an Aremac in this century?"

"No, sir, I think you're mistaken, this is a vintage camera." The pig grabbed for it, but the Doctor stood up and held it just out of reach.

"So, if it's the exact opposite of a camera, then does it shoot something at people?" Trixie inquired.

"Close," the Doctor answered. "A Polaroid camera spits its products out. An Aremac pulls its products in."

Trixie stood next to the Doctor. "So, how do we get them out?"

"Please, just give me back my camera!" The pig man exclaimed.

Trixie shot him a look of liquid vitriol. "No, you pig! We're going to free the women you have trapped in here and turn your sorry bum into the beach security."

With that, she screamed at the top of her lungs.

A trio of lifeguards came running to her aid. "What is it, miss? Are you okay?" A tall and surly purple porpoise held out a first aid kit.

She pointed at the pig man, playing the part of damsel in distress. "This man is trying to capture me with his Aremac! He's already got a ton of my friends, but, like, thank goodness my boyfriend was here to stop him!"

The purple porpoise latched his arms around the pig man. "We're going to have to take you in, sir." He turned to the Doctor. "And we're going to need- Oh my! Are you… You're him!"

The Doctor smiled. "Yes, I am!"

A red porpoise smacked the purple one in the belly with his flipper. "Dude! He's just trying to have a relaxing vacation with his girlfriend! Be cool!"

The purple one still couldn't help but gawk. "I didn't know there were lady Time Lords!"

"I'm a human, actually," Trixie cut in, dropping the damsel act. "Just take this guy in, yeah? I'm pretty sure we can handle to Amerac."

"Yes, ma'am. Of course ma'am." The purple porpoise took her hand and kissed it awkwardly. "Thank you, ma'am! Goodbye!"

As the lifeguards dragged the pig man away, the Doctor gave Trixie a goofy grin.

"What?" She demanded.

He couldn't help but laugh. "So I'm your boyfriend now, is it?"

Trixie rolled her eyes. "Oh, goodness no." But then she laughed. "It's too early to say, don't you think?" She tapped the Amerac. "How about we free these ladies and see where it goes, yeah?"

The Doctor returned his attention to the matters at hand. "So, when you take a picture, how do you get the picture out of the camera?"

"You develop the film," Trixie answered. "Film is developed in a dark room typically, but Polaroids just take the right paper, light, and some time."

"Precisely!" The Doctor booped her nose endearingly. "Now, how about we print these people out and get them developed?"

The Doctor and Trixie worked quickly to remove the people from the Amerac one picture at a time, laying the Polaroid-style pictures end-to-end along the shore line. As the starshine hit the blackness, the trapped women slowly began to materialize from their paper prisons. They ran off one by one, desperate to find freedom again.

"I hope that pig rots forever in space jail," Trixie quipped, crossing her arms around herself as the star began to set.

"Come one, now," the Doctor decided, laying his jacket across her shoulders. "Let's get back to the TARDIS before we freeze to death out here. You wouldn't believe how cold diamond dust can get."


	2. The Squealing Twenties

When Trixie woke up the next morning, she wasn't sure where she was.

She went over the facts in her mind, organizing what she knew into a sort of mental list.

She saved the world a few days ago.

She woke up in the hospital yesterday.

She spent the rest of the day at the beach.

She'd spent the day with the Doctor, the not too unattractive alien who took her to the hospital after she saved the world.

She and the Doctor watched _The Sound of Music_ last night.

She woke up in this super comfy bed in this super unusual room.

The only logical conclusion was that she'd fallen asleep watching the film. She wondered if the Doctor had carried her to bed. She wondered where the Doctor was now.

Kicking her legs over the side of the bed, Trixie hopped out of bed and helped herself to the TARDIS wardrobe. Clothes in all sizes and all styles hung from floor to ceiling. She took her own sweet time to pick the perfect outfit for what she wanted to do next: a walk in Central Park. _I might as well check a few items off my bucket list while I don't have to pay for airfare._

She found the Doctor in a spacey kitchen right off of the control room. Already done up in the same suit and bow tie as every day before, the Doctor hummed quietly to himself as he whipped up a large stack of flapjacks. He stirred together flour, water, and eggs to the tune of "Do-Re-Mi." He poured the pancake mix into a skillet and did a little box step and flipped each pancake over. He piled a fine china plate two feet high with the fluffiest flapjacks Trixie had ever seen. She waited in the doorway, watching, wondering if this was how he always was when he thought no one else was watching.

"Me, a name I call myself…" She sang along as he flipped another flapjack. "Fa, a long, long way to ruuun!"

"Oh, Trixie! I didn't see you there!" The Doctor nearly dropped in spatula when he turned around to the counter facing the doorway. "Good morning, love." He came to the doorway to peck her on the cheek.

"Good morning, Doctor." Trixie returned his greeting. She wondered if he kissed all of his friends on the cheek. (She sure hoped not.) She wondered what it would be like to kiss him for real.

Trixie helped herself to a plate of chocolate chip pancakes and a barstool. "Where did you learn to cook?" She laughed and took a gigantic bite, letting the maple syrup drip down the side of her face.

The Doctor smiled, obviously quite pleased with himself. "Paris, eighteenth century." He stared down at the half dozen flapjacks she'd piled onto her plate. "I'm glad you're impressed." He tossed a paper towel at her face.

"Oh, I wouldn't say _impressed_ so much as _didn't have dinner last night_ ," she teased him.

"My apologies, I forget that humans need to eat three times a day," the Doctor replied. He jotted a series of circles and lines down onto a sticky note. "Where would you like to go for dinner?"

She didn't hesitate to answer. "New York City. Anytime."

"That's a popular choice," the time traveller noted, leading the way back into the TARDIS control room. "Why is everyone so in love with New York City?"

Trixie gazed off as if she could see it now. This was something she didn't share with anyone, but the Doctor didn't count, because there was no way that he was real."I have this daydream that I visit when I'm stressed out, when I feel like I need to get out of London. I'm an heiress living in the city, and I go to Broadway plays, and I eat at all the famous restaurants, and I take walks through Central Park…"

He smiled. "How often do you visit this daydream?"

Trixie couldn't help but laugh at herself. "More and more each day, it seems."

"Then New York City it is."

It was raining when they got to New York City. Still, done up in their Sunday best, the Doctor and Trixie strolled arm-in-arm through the streets of 1923. Of all the rainy afternoons the Doctor had spent in New York City, there was something special about this rainy afternoon in particular. It wasn't a bad special: it was just different. He sniffed. Maybe it was something in the air.

"Can I ask you something?" The Doctor pulled Trixie a little closer.

"Of course," she replied. "You can ask me anything."

"Why New York, of all places? Why not Paris or Rome or Canis Major?"

Trixie laughed, a bird song. "I do want to go to all of those places, but each for a specific purpose, with a specific person. Paris with the one I love, Rome with the one I learn from, and Canis Major with the one who helps me reach the stars. And New York City with a good friend."

He determined to take this woman to all of those places and more.

"So, Doctor, can I ask you a question?" Now it was Trixie's turn to probe. "Or, better idea, we can make it a getting to know you game. A question for a question. I'll go first." She cleared her throat. "Why do you travel so much?"

"Because I am a man without a country," he informed her. "Why don't you travel at all?"

She laughed. "I'm currently living on a teacher's salary, thank you. Do you have a job?"

"I save the universe. Why are you a teacher?"

"I'm not exactly. I work in the computer lab at a secondary school. I'm trying for a new job, though. I applied to be the IT Director at a big company in London. What's your favorite place to visit?"

"London." This was where all of the people he loved most in the universe came from. "Want to go inside someplace?"

"Yes." She stood a little closer to him under their polka dot umbrella. "Do you have anyone special in your life?"

"Not romantically, exactly, if that's what you mean." The Doctor sighed. The last time he talked to River, she was on her third spouse. The time before that, he was invited to her fifth wedding. "And you?"

Trixie shook her head dramatically. "He dumped me not two days before the Tin Men showed up at work." She slumped her shoulders forward. "And to think I was going to marry that man."

The Doctor bumped her shoulder with his own. "His loss, eh?"

She smiled.

They walked into the first shop that they could find.

"Hello, friends! Welcome to Anna Mae's Ladies' Boutique!" The cheery blonde saleswoman greeted them with a bright pink smile. "What are we looking for today?"

They were in New York City in the 1920s. Trixie couldn't help but think of _The Great Gatsby._ "A party dress. As sparkly as you can get it."

The sales clerk nodded in approval. "Right this way please."

That was how Trixie ended up in a flapper dress dancing her heart to to big band music inside a mansion that could swallow her apartment building whole. The black tassels hung off the pink dress all the way to her knees, and she swished and swayed enough to make them stand straight out. She fell backwards from a table, knowing that her next dance partner would catch her and lead her straight into a Charleston.

A pig hoof covered her mouth.

Trixie stayed quiet, wondering where this pig man was taking her. There had to be a reason, because this certainly wasn't a coincidence. When next she opened her eyes, she was bound and gagged alongside a row of young dancers.

Trixie kicked her feet against the floor. She could tell that the noise of the party was coming from directly below them, and if she made enough of a ruckus, surely someone would come up to investigate. She pounded the floor with her feet. She bounced up and down as much as she could. She banged her head against the wall until it almost split open. Finally, Trixie had an idea. She motioned for the other women to join her, pounding out the beat of "We Will Rock You."

The Doctor appeared in the doorway just before Trixie began to sing. She waved her arms wildly, gesturing for him to untie the others quickly. The pig men came into the room just as the Doctor was about to untie Trixie, so he slung her over his shoulder and did what he did best. He ran.

Trixie nearly threw up from all the bumping and thumping. The mansion was no more than a blur as the Doctor ran through doors and down stairs and over and under and around and up down up down up down….

The pig men chased the Doctor all the way to the party's main stage, where he grabbed the microphone and announced that there were kidnappers in their midst. As this was America, someone had a gun, and the pig men were chased out of the mansion and off into the darkness.

"Trixie, are you alright?" The Doctor untied her on the edge of the stage.

She nodded, finally able to breath again. "TARDIS…" she coughed, forcing down the bile rising from her stomach. "Too much motion." She wondered what the cat nurses had done to her body.

The Doctor and Trixie took a carriage ride back through Central Park. "Next time," he promised her, "we'll go somewhere nothing bad will happen to you."


	3. Don't Forget

The Doctor woke up to a humming from the TARDIS control room and humming from the kitchen. He stretched his arms above his head and decided to follow one or the other.

"Good morning, sexy," the Doctor whispered, laying one loving hand against the TARDIS wall.

"Good morning to you, too, my love." Trixie sides-stepped down the hall and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

The Doctor froze, suddenly very awake.

"What, you don't want waffles?" With a cheeky grin, she threw her braid over her shoulder and sashayed back down the hall to the kitchen.

They needed to have a talk.

The Doctor followed her, his pajamas still as messy as his bedhead. He sat at the counter, where a big plate of waffles had already been set out. "Where have you been all my lives?" he smiled.

"Oh, honey, I'm sure you don't want to know." She took a seat next to him and dove into her own plate of waffles without another word.

The Doctor took a bite and chewed. He really liked this girl. She was such a sweet companion, not to mention a great friend. They'd been together for less than a week, and yet… And yet…

The Doctor put down his fork and grabbed Trixie's chin. He kissed her as if the very thought of them could save all of Gallifrey.

He stopped when she slapped him across the face.

"Oi! What'd you do that for?" The Doctor rubbed his jaw and pouted.

"Oi! What'd you do that for?" she repeated. "I just woke up, mate! I'm not Sleeping Beauty!"

"But you kissed me this morning!" His defense came off as a plaintive kitten.

"What are you talking about?" she huffed. "I said I just woke up. Why am I in the kitchen?"

"Wha-" The Doctor stopped. "Oh."

She crossed her arms. "Oh what?'

"Oh dear."

"Oh dear what?"

"Oh dear… _ear_."

The Doctor put his hand behind her ear. "You've caught a memory worm, I believe." He poked around the back of her neck, but… Nothing. "No, no, you haven't." The Doctor wrapped his hands around hers. "Trixie, do you remember where you are?"

She shrugged. "I'm on the TARDIS. I'm… you're…"

"What's the last thing you remember?"

Trixie shrugged. "I remember… I remember Adam."

"Who's Adam?" The Doctor silently hoped that it wasn't one of the pig men.

"Adam is my fiancee," she laughed. "Where is he? I saw him this morning."

The Doctor took a deep breath. "Trixie, love, that was me you saw."

She shook her head. "No, I woke up… here." She whipped her head around wildly. "Where's Adam?"

"Trixie, shhh." The Doctor met her eyes. "You told me that you and Adam ended your relationship two days before we met."

"Oh my gosh…" She shook her head as if she didn't believe him. "You're the Doctor, right?"

He nodded.

"And we saved the world?"

"Yes."

"And we went to the beach."

"Yup."

"And we went to New York City."

"Yes, love."

"And you're a Time Lord?"

"Mmhmm."

"And you only go by the Doctor."

"Right-o."

"And you're my boyfriend?"

The Doctor hesitated. She obviously had amnesia, but…

"No, no, wrong…. Wrong timeline. You're my friend."

He nodded.

"Doctor?"

"Yes?"

"I think I need to go to a doctor, like a real one."

She passed out, cold.

Trixie woke up in an all-too-familiar bed.

"Doctor?"

"The doctor will be with you in a moment, dear." The Catkind nurse purred as she readjusted Trixie's IV. "You just rest, lovie."

"Where is, um.. My husband?" She struggled to remember… well, much.

"Right here, love." The Doctor returned to her side with two cups of tea. "I'm always right here."

Trixie held out her hand for the Doctor to hold. He took it, absentmindedly rubbing his thumb against her fingers as he watched the sugar dissolve in his tea. He dropped in another sugar cube, watched it swirl, concentrated on her ring finger. Trixie drew her hand back to the hospital bed.

 _Adam._

"I think I'm good to go now." She downed her mug of tea in one long gulp and threw the covers to the side. "Allons-y!"

The Doctor winced, then, this: "I don't think today is going to be an adventure day, love."

"Then take me home." Trixie jumped to her feet. Swaying like a palm tree, she repeated her demand. "Come on, you old man. Let's go."

"Trixie-" Before the Doctor could finish his thought, however, she was passed out, barely caught in his arms before her head hit the bed frame.

 _"Happy birthday, Trixie!"_

 _Familiar faces clapped in a swimming applause, mixing with the throbbing inside Trixie's head. Adam sat at the head of her kitchen table, a cake before him all done up like Christmas Day. A younger Trixie balanced on his knees, her smile as wide and shiny as an oyster shell. They blew out the candles together, and he clamped his hands over her eyes right before she could make a wish. When Trixie could finally open her eyes, the cake had been replaced with something she hadn't even thought to wish for yet._

 _"Yes! Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!" Trixie nearly knocked the ring box off the table in her rush to plant her thankfulness on Adam's lips. Yes, in every language. Yes, in every universe. Yes, in every second of every hour of every single day. She would never have to be alone again._

 _"I guess I don't even have to ask, then." But Adam got up and got down on one knee anyway. "Trixie Lord, I know it seems like we only just met, but I want to spend the rest of this life with you. Will you marry me?"_

 _"Are you kidding me? Of course!" Trixie threw herself back into the one place she belonged, wrapped in Adam's arms, her head pressed right next to his heart. She collapsed into a puddle of tears while the rest of the room applauded._

When Trixie came to, the Doctor was on his third pot of tea. He stopped wearing a hole in the hospital floor just long enough to check her vital signs. Rather than yell for the nurse, he simply scooped Trixie back up into his arms and left. She was too fragile for the Catkind to get ahold of, too human. He'd seen what they could do.

He yanked back the curtain next to the bed to reveal the TARDIS in all her old, reliable glory. He snapped his fingers the way River had taught him, and the doors popped right open. He lay Trixie across the little seat and fired up his old friend to fly across the galaxy.

Trixie slowly climbed back to consciousness. She curled into a little ball on the TARDIS seat, so innocent, so broken. The Doctor docked the TARDIS next to a star and took Trixie in his arms again. "I have studied medicine in thirteen different centuries," he sighed, "And I have no idea what is wrong with you."

 _Trixie drifted woke up in a puddle of tears on her pillow. She rolled over before opening her eyes, making sure that she would face the wall. She didn't want to see it. The pillow next to her could stay cold as long as she didn't have to see it._

 _She rubbed her thumb against her ring finger, a pale strip of skin betraying the French Coast tan reminiscent of their summer holiday. The alarm on her bedside table sang a Taylor Swift song. Trixie clobbered it with the empty pillow._

 _She didn't cry in the shower. She was never one to sing, either. So she just screamed. She replayed the events of last night over and over, not giving a damn who could hear. Adam wasn't there anymore, so what even mattered?_

 _Trixie ran a razor over her red and wrinkled skin. She'd been standing in the shower too long. It was too hot. She ran the razor over her skin again and watched it bleed. She tossed the old plastic razor over the top of the shower rod. She didn't need to shave, anyway._

 _All the words she could have said...Everything she never said to him….Trixie toweled off the "What if's" along with still-sudsy water. She smelled like roses and new beginnings. She didn't need to cry anymore._

 _She put on her blue Apple Store t-shirt and made waffles for one and walked into work late._

Trixie scrubbed away hot tears as she blinked into the TARDIS starlight. She was wide awake in a fantasy world. Nothing that happened a thousand light years away would matter anymore. She got to her feet and wobbled through the control room to join the Doctor in his pacing.

"Hey, Doctor, there's probably something that I should've told you a long time ago."

"Hmm. What's that?" He stopped and turned around so quickly that he nearly slid into the TARDIS wall. He laughed it off and held out his arms to embrace her. "Glad to see you're feeling better, love."

"Yeah, about that…." She stood up straight. She was just going to say it. "Doctor, I…." She hesitated. She was so scared when she told Adam. But that was different. That was another time. That ended. This was (potentially) forever. "Doctor, I get amnesia randomly."

"Oh." The bright smile faded from his beautiful face. "And you have no idea why?"

She shook her head. "Not a clue. It just happens."

He nodded slowly. "Well then, you'll just have to stick close by me, and I'll make sure you don't forget."

"Doctor?"

"Hmm?"

"You make me not want to forget."

She hated lying to him. She knew why. The half-empty flask currently wrapped up in her blue Apple Store t-shirt knew, too.

 _Geronimo!_


End file.
